ALFA 3-4/2005 - Fakulta architektúry STU

Ročník 9
3-4 / 2005 ARCHITEKTONICKÉ LISTY FA STU
Touch
Touch is known as the confirmatory sense. By touching, we
confirm what we pick up from our other senses, which are what we
see, hear, smell or taste. The skin is the largest sensory organ.
Touch collects information and confirming data received by
the other senses. It is the haptic sense of living and acting in space.
Textural surfaces form an integral part of a child’s world of
learning. They can help a partially sighted patient to navigate
through space, imagine a blind person’s total environment, and
support a mental health patient’s shift from an unreal world to
reality. Patients with sensitive burnt, cut, bruised or blistered skin
will experience their environment with their feet, elbows, backs,
bottoms, lips, noses etc. as well as their hands.
Useful: Touch is particularly important to people with visual
impairments. Tactile floor and wall surfaces can be used to convey
important information about their environment. Changes in texture
can also warn of potential hazards or provide directional
information. Children need tactile experience to develop their
sensory receptors. Where possible, designers should introduce
textured surfaces, which can create an integral part of a child’s
play and learning process. This is a useful tool for a child’s
developing sensory receptors.
Comfort: The careful specification of varied texture and tactile
surfaces is necessary. It introduces interest, variety and comfort
and assists in wayfinding for visually impaired people. Furnishings
should be selected with comfort in mind, for example soft
bedcovers, fabrics, rounded corners and ergonomically designed
furniture. Placing controls for nurse call, lighting, telephone,
television, and radio within easy reach of a patient enhances selfreliance
and increases patient safety. In multi-bed rooms, each
patient should also have equal access to controls such as
windows, blinds, curtains and television. An environment scaled
for young children and elderly or disabled people will enhance
their sense of independence.
Harmful: Very careful attention should be paid to the detailing
of furniture and fittings. The design should minimise the risk
of users trapping their fingers and toes etc. Where possible sharp
corners should be avoided and redesigned to prevent predictable
injury. Furniture that can’t be moved may cause patients to feel
stressed or anxious and may contribute to a patient’s sense
of helplessness and dependence. Fixed tables and chairs should
be avoided where possible.
Smell
In hospitals, medicinal smells can produce anxiety. Unpleasant
odours increase heart rate and respiration. One forgets that some
of the smells that inhabit hospitals are formaldehyde, formulin,
iodine, glutaraldehyde, bone dust, urine, burnt skin, testosterone,
disease, body odour etc. Fear is communicated through smells.
Good ventilation systems and appropriate building’s layout are
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sufficient to eliminate odours and smells but we have to pay
attention to these factors from beginning.
Taste
Today’s dining spaces can be clinical and sterile spaces delivering
regenerated and hermetically sealed food sustenance. Young
children will pop anything in their mouths. They may drink bath
water, suck plugs, eat crayons and swallow other small objects.
Teething infants sometimes find relief in licking the glass on
windows and mirrors, and biting stainless steel handles and other
cold surfaces. Children may lick and chew furnishings. Designers
must check the toxic nature of materials during specification and
avoid products containing formaldehydes, wood preservatives,
arsenic, white spirit, benzene and other toxic substances.
Hearing
Sound has a fundamental effect on us, both psychologically and
physiologically. Sounds such as rain, a breeze, the sea, moving
water and songbirds can calm and create a sense of wellbeing.
Courtyards and landscaped gardens close to patient areas should
include plants that encourage songbirds.
Music can have an analgesic or painkilling effect, and can also
reduce blood pressure, heart and respiration rates. Patients
should have the opportunity to listen to music via headphones and
live performances. It is important to remember that some people
will view music as noise. Therefore, people should have a choice
as to whether they have to listen to music. Music therapy is used
to treat depression, to reach autistic children and to calm and relax
agitated psychiatric patients.
Reduce patients stress and improve outcomes
Increase staff effectiveness by designing better workplaces
Jobs by nurses, physicians, and others often require a complex
choreography of direct patient care, critical communications,
charting, filling meds, access to technology and information, and
other tasks. Nurses, physicians, and other healthcare employees
work under extremely stressful physical conditions. Many hospital
settings have not been rethought as jobs have changed, and, as
a result, the design of hospitals often increases staff stress and
reduces their effectiveness in delivering care. There is a growing
and convincing evidence suggesting that improved designs can
make the jobs of staff much easier.
Nurses spend a lot of time walking. According to study
McCorick&Scheve, (1990), almost 28.9 percent of nursing staff
time was spent walking. This came second only to patient-care
activities, which accounted for 56.9 percent of observed
behaviour. The main factor, which influences amount of walking
among nursing staff in hospital, is type of unit layout (e.g. radial,
single corridor, double corridor).